Is Danny Granger worth keeping around?

With injury and production that has already begun to diminish is Danny Granger worth keeping around for the Pistons?

Saturday Vince Ellis of the Detroit Free Press reported that Detroit was going to keep veteran Danny Granger on the roster despite the belief he would be let go after acquiring him from the Suns earlier in the summer. Granger’s assumed release in part was derived from the Pistons currently having eighteen players on their roster after being expected to head into the year with thirteen. Van Gundy though in typical ‘Hedgehog’ fashion wasn’t one to mince words (as Piston Powered’s Braden Shackelford pointed out) when it came to commenting on Granger being marred by injury in recent years, something that has had a detrimental impact on his overall game.

Van Gundy though has seemed a little more prone to look forward when it comes to what his players could give him instead of what they’ve done in the past. Case in point with Reggie Jackson who’s clearly being paid for what Van Gundy anticipates he’ll do instead of what he’s previously done with the Thunder.

Dec 31, 2014; Indianapolis, IN, USA; Miami Heat forward Danny Granger (22) waits to check in at the scorer /

Could Van Gundy be keeping that same ‘wait and see’ approach with Granger? And again is Granger even worth the wait and see?

As of now it looks like Granger will be competing with Cartier Martin, Reggie Bullock, Adonis Thomas and Darrun Hilliard for those final two roster spots.

Obviously Granger has the name recognition and track record in the NBA being a former All-Star back in 2008-09 with the Indiana Pacers.

However since the 2012-13 season when he played in just five games due to patellar tendinosis, Granger has been a player in the negative. Granger’s ‘Value Over Replacement Player’ or ‘VORP’ went from a -0.1 to a -0.2 last year. This comes after being a relatively 2.0-3.0 VORP player throughout the majority of his career before injuries started to take their toll.

Negative VORP aside, Granger last season with the Heat may have shown slightly that he can improve somewhat on the prior injury plagued years. He had a slight upturn in his field goal percentage shooting .401 from the field while his offensive and defensive rebounding percentages stood at 4.0 and 11.5 respectively.

When it comes though to his competition this season for those final roster spots, Granger really hasn’t done enough recently to separate himself from the pack.

Aside from rookie Darrun Hilliard, Cartier Martin, Reggie Bullock and Adonis Thomas were all negative players when it came to the VORP measurement. Martin was the worst at -0.3, followed by Bullock who scored a -0.2 and Thomas who had a -0.1 but only played in six games during 2014-15.

On the offensive side of the court, Granger is still the best rebounder (by far) sitting on a 4.0 offensive rebounding percentage. Hilliard was the closest to matching this at a 2.0 percentage last season in Villanova. Hilliard also shot .440 from the field in 14-15 which was the best statistically among the five, but it was Granger’s .401 field goal percentage that was the best among the group given the sample size of Thomas’ .429.